This week Hurricane Gustav lashed the Gulf Coast, a reminder of the consistently more powerful storms generated by warming Gulf waters. The hurricane is playing havoc with the schedule at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, set to start tonight. The storm and the disrupted convention are evidence also of the political peril that envelops a government that fails to pay heed to sound science and the most critical environmental challenge of our time.

With that in mind we at the Apollo Alliance wanted to keep our readers abreast of all the clean energy proposals in play this campaign season:

The New Apollo Program — Our own five-point economic development strategy for a new American prosperity (see pix above of Rep. Ed Markey with Apollo Chairman Phil Angelides (r) and Steelworkers President and Apollo Board member Leo Gerard (rear left). Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow). It calls for rebuilding America clean and green, making the tools and equipment of the clean energy economy in America, restoring our technological leadership, preparing people to take command of the millions of green-collar jobs under development, and investing in American ingenuity.

New Energy For America –The Obama campaign’s plan, a clean energy strategy based to a significant extent on the Apollo Alliance’s original 2004 New Energy For America study, and the 2008 The New Apollo Program. Though Senator Obama grudgingly concedes to being interested in keeping his sights on nuclear energy, and outer continental shelf drilling — a nod to political realities — the core of his program is scaling up clean biofuels, next-generation vehicles, energy efficiency, energy conservation, research and development, and solving climate change.The Lexington Project – Senator John McCain’s energy plan, which includes significant support for biofuels, next generation vehicles, and energy efficiency. But as the campaign has progressed, McCain has steadily moved toward the oil and gas constituency, and the major manufacturers of power equipment and the utilities that run it. The result is a campaign that sees more domestic drilling and allegiance to nuclear power as solutions to the nation’s energy and economic crises.

Al Gore’s plan– “Produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun, and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years.” Gore proposes to update the electrical grid, help struggling auto giants switch to manufacture plug-in electric cars, guarantee good jobs, and insist that price of carbon-based energy include cost of environmental damage it causes.His plan is quite costly, estimates run to $1 trillion.His plan is not clear about specifics.

Gang of Ten:A bipartisan coalition led by Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)Other senators in the coalition include: John Thune (R-S.D.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) The plan class for allowing leases for offshore drilling off the coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. It would also allow Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina and Georgia to opt in to leasing off their shores. The plan supports nuclear and promotes conservation and efficiency, including $2.5 billion in research and development on biofuels and infrastructure. It also would fund a $20 billion “Apollo Project”-like effort to support the goal of transitioning 85 percent of America’s new motor vehicles to non-petroleum-based fuels within 20 years.

Representatives Mark Kirk and Judy Biggert — The two Republicans from Illinois co-sponsored The Apollo Energy Independence Act (H.R.6385) – a $23 billion initiative to provide market incentives to produce and deploy alternative energy, reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.The proposal is funded by reducing agricultural subsidies, cutting congressional earmarks, and ending outdated telephone subsidies.There is a lot about nuclear support and renewable, but the plan neglects jobs and industrial transformation.

Keith Schneider

Since 2008, when he led a multi-media reporting team from Circle of Blue to the Murray-Darling basin, Australia’s prime food-growing region, Keith Schneider has reported from the front lines of five continents on the intensifying global confrontation between water, energy, and food.
His work as senior editor and chief correspondent for Circle of Blue’s Global Choke Point project has taken him to the coal-producing deserts of China’s Yellow River Valley, the oil and gas fields of the American West, India’s wheat and rice basket in Punjab, Qatar’s mammoth Persian Gulf desalination plants, Mongolia's mineral rich and water scarce South Gobi desert, the Peruvian Andes, Panama's rainforests, and to United Nations climate conferences in New York, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Tianjin.
In documenting and assessing the consequences of rising demand for energy and food in an era of diminishing freshwater reserves, Keith is playing an essential role in writing a new 21st century narrative about the contest for scarce resources.
On every continent, the steep increase in demand for coal, oil, natural gas, and grain — the largest users of water — crosses an equally sharp decline in available freshwater reserves. As Keith and his Circle of Blue colleagues have shown in exclusive online multi-media reports, the place where the trend vectors collide is reshaping the Earth’s environment, reordering national priorities, and deeply affecting national economies.
In 2014, two of the six provisions in the U.S.-China climate agreement, a breakthrough in diplomacy, focused on the new data and fresh assessments of the ties between energy and water. Those details were brought directly to the leaders of both countries by Keith's reporting for Circle of Blue, and by his participation in speaking tours and convenings in China and the U.S. In 2012, the Rockefeller Foundation recognized Global Choke Point and Circle of Blue with its $100,000 Rockefeller Centennial Innovation Award.
Keith also is a special correspondent in the United States for The New York Times, where he has reported on energy, urban affairs, technology, environment, agriculture, and cultural trends since 1981. He is the winner of numerous awards for his work as a journalist, program innovator, and editor including two George Polk Memorial Awards for environmental and national reporting, among the most prestigious in American journalism. He is a graduate of Haverford College, and writes from northern Michigan, where Circle of Blue is based, and where Keith has lived since 1993.